“We’re already selling tickets in 123 countries, but we’ll be improving the app for users in other countries.”įor example, they’re working on payment processing so that users will be charged in their local currency. “We’re in this very particular position where our service has gone global because of the quality of the data and the forecasting,” Lalonde said. That equals roughly $61 million in the U.S, which Lalonde said the company will use to continue to grow internationally.
PRICE HOPPER SERIES
In December 2016, Hopper closed a Series C round for $82 million in Canadian dollars (the startup has another office in Montreal). Overall, Lalonde said Hopper users save an average of $150 per year on their air travel, which is part of the reason the app has received awards like Apple’s App Store Best of 2015, the Webby Award for Best Travel App and Google Play’s Best of 2016. The earlier a user sets up a “trip watch” by tapping the “watch this trip” binoculars button, the greater their savings will be in the app, Lalonde added. “On average, our users start ‘watching’ flights three months in advance of departure, which is about 40 days earlier than travelers typically search for flights on the web.” “We use our historical data to create trip-specific pricing forecasts up to year in advance of departure based on current and historical yield trends as well as pricing volatility,” Lalonde said.
PRICE HOPPER ARCHIVE
The company has also built an archive of trillions of prices going back several years, including flight availability along with consumer demand (search interest). The travel company does this in a number of ways.įirst, Hopper receives a real-time stream of consumer airfare search results from its flight search partners, collecting about 8 billion airfare price quotes every day. “Hopper is the only airfare predictor tool available that can forecast future prices with 95 percent accuracy up to a year in advance of departure,” said CEO and co-founder Frederic Lalonde. Hopper, a Cambridge-based startup, is hoping to stand out from the pack by using big data to predict and analyze airfare with laser-like precision. The only drawback? In 2017, there are literally dozens of apps to choose from. Booking a flight can be stressful and expensive, which is why many people turn to travel apps to help them find the lowest airfare.